Letter of Introduction

I have limited experience when it comes to reading and writing. I never took an English class unless it was essential to my graduation from high school, and I have continued this trend throughout college. It is not that I do not enjoy English classes, because I do love reading and writing, I just never have the time to take any classes other than those required by my strict Biology major. I have read a number of great works such as To Kill a Mockinbird and Catcher In The Rye and I have written all sorts of pieces ranging from persuasive essays to short stories. I was fortunate to be a part of a school district in high school that taught me a lot about writing in general as well.

It is quite bizarre that I was asked to list off some of the particular books I have read and enjoyed, because I recently made a list of all the books I could think of reading in my life. I seldom read for fun, but I did read an immense collection throughout the past couple of years.  I always felt as if I was one of the very few people who enjoyed many of the works I read throughout high school but there were a few works that I did not like as well. Topping my list of my favorite books I have read is Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. This book was a captivating tale about the life of a fictional geisha and I enjoyed it because of the history it presented. I am a mild history buff, and found this story incredibly interesting. Another book I particularly enjoyed was 1984 by George Orwell. This book was an odd but interesting outlook on what the world could become, and I enjoyed reading about a world 100 times different from my own. One book that I can recall extremely loathing was Watership Down by Richard Adams. This book was supposed to be a political novel but used rabbits as the subjects. I can reason that I did not like this book because of the weird use of animals and also because I do not particularly like anything to do with politics.

My high school curriculum was also very big on Shakespeare. Luckily, I came to love most of his pieces that I read. I had one particular English teacher for my junior and senior years of high school and he was mildly obsessed with William Shakespeare, or so it seemed. He made learning Shakespeare easy by reading all the plays aloud during class and describing everything as we went along. He also focused on quotes, which really helped me learn how to depict what Shakespeare was trying to say in modern English.

I have discovered that over the years I have written many research papers on controversial parts of some of the books I have read. I have also written many book reviews, highlighting different aspects of works. I do not have much experience with creative writing, although I did write some poetry for high school English classes. I am usually very formal when writing emails and such, but I have contemplating blogging for an informal approach for quite some time. I am taking this English class, as it is a requirement for my Literature Humanities course. I was going to take an Italian class to fulfill this requirement but chose otherwise. My major is Biological Sciences with a minor in Psychology. I hope to attend Dental school after graduation from Clemson. I am also in my junior year and I am from New Jersey.

Short Poem:

Choosing to come to Clemson was a big decision,

Coming from so far away was hard to do,

Some of my classes could use some revision,

But I’ve learned a lot and made some friends who are new.

I’ve learned Anatomy, Chemistry and Biology galore,

And I’ve learned how fiery Tiger fans are on Saturday,

I have one and a half years to learn much more,

But I am waiting to graduate on that fine day in May!